Chapter1 Routing XNS 1
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Chapter1 Routing XNS 1 This chapter describes how to configure your router to perform routing for packets following the Xerox Network Systems (XNS) stack of protocols. You will find information about the following topics and tasks: ■ How to configure a routing process for XNS routing. This includes information on the principal XNS protocols, XNS addressing, how to configure your router to route XNS traffic, managing security issues, and maximizing performance. ■ How to configure helper addresses for broadcast traffic. ■ How to set up routes, including setting metrics. ■ How to configure options for access lists and filters. ■ Configuration restrictions and requirements for encapsulation of all important lower layer protocols, including Token Ring, FDDI, Ethernet, and others. This chapter also contains configuration information on Ungermann-Bass’ and 3Com’s XNS-derived protocols. The section “XNS Configuration Examples” later in this chapter includes examples of actual configurations for working XNS networks, including Ungermann-Bass and 3Com. For additional information on configuring access lists in 3Com networks, please consult the Application Note titled A Detailed Look at Access Lists in 3Com XNS. Cisco’s Implementation of XNS Cisco provides a subset of the XNS protocol stack to support XNS routing on its routers. The same Cisco routers that route XNS can also route another protocol stack like TCP/IP or DECnet. At the physical and data link layers, XNS traffic can be routed over Ethernets, FDDI, Token Rings, or point-to-point serial lines running HDLC or LAPB. DECnet In previous releases of Cisco’s routing software, it was not possible to run DECnet Phase IV and any of the XNS family of protocols simultaneously in a router that included both Ethernet and Token Ring interfaces. This restriction was removed in Release 8.2. There are no changes to the syntax of any configuration commands. Routing XNS ■ 1-1 Ethernet and Token Ring When XNS routing is enabled, the address is either the IEEE-compliant address specified in the XNS routing configuration command, or the first IEEE-compliant address in the system. The address is also used as the node address that non-LAN media (notably serial links) use for their XNS node addresses. This address is then used as the default XNS node address on non-LAN nodes. XNS was originally designed by the same company (Xerox) that developed Ethernet, so it was designed to run over Ethernet. If you implement an XNS stack over Token Ring at the first two layers, you have to encapsulate the lower layers differently than you would for Ethernet. Encapsulation defines the kind of envelope (layer 1 and layer 2 bits) in which three through seven of the XNS protocol and data packet are wrapped prior to being transmitted. Because there is no agreed-upon mechanism for encapsulating XNS packets on a Token Ring network, many vendors have invented their own encapsulation methods. We will discuss this in detail in the section “Configuring XNS Over Token Ring” later in this chapter. XNS Addresses Both Data Link (MAC) and Network Layer addressing is needed in any network that supports routing; XNS is no exception. An XNS Network Layer address is composed of three fields. ■ The network number uniquely identifies a network in an internet. ■ The host number uniquely identifies a host on a network. ■ The socket number uniquely identifies a socket within the operating system of the host. A socket is a transport address that is the source or destination of packets. Network and Host Numbers The network number is expressed in decimal format in Cisco configuration files and routing tables. When configuring a Cisco router, enter the network number in decimal. Addresses must be unique throughout an XNS internet. Since both the network number and the host address are needed to deliver traffic to a host, addresses are usually given as network numbers, followed by host addresses, separated with dots. An example address follows. Example: 47.0000.0c00.23fe Here, the network number is 47 (decimal), and the host address is 0000.0c00.23fe (hex). 1-2 ■ Router Products Configuration and Reference Socket Numbers An XNS socket number is a 16-bit field in the IDP header. Sockets are selected by the client processes of each host before a connection is established. Certain socket numbers are con- sidered to be well-known sockets (WKS), which means that the service performed by the software using them is statically defined. Each system element supplying a specific well- known service does so at the same WKS. Socket numbers above the well-known range are arbitrary, which means that they can be selected and reused at random. ■ A socket number of zero means all. ■ A socket number of all ones (0xFFFF hex) means unknown. ■ Well-known socket numbers range from 1 to 0x0BB8 hex (3000 decimal). All other socket numbers may be dynamically assigned and reused. Configuring XNS Follow these steps to configure XNS routing: Step 1: Enable XNS routing using the xns routing command. Step 2: Assign a unique XNS network number to each interface, using the xns network command. Step 3: Optionally configure performance parameters and helper addresses (which help you manage broadcast traffic). Step 4: Optionally configure access lists and filters. Additionally, EXEC-level commands for monitoring and debugging the XNS network are available. These commands are described in the last few sections of this chapter, along with concise summaries of the global and interface-specific configuration commands. Enabling XNS Routing The first step in the configuration process is to specify XNS as the protocol you are enabling. Use the xns routing global configuration command to enable XNS routing. The full syntax of this command follows. xns routing [address] no xns routing The optional argument address is the router interface’s complete address, which is expressed in hexadecimal format. The no xns routing disables all XNS processing. Routing XNS ■ 1-3 Example: In the example below, an interface whose address is 0123.4567.abcd is enabled for XNS routing. xns routing 0123.4567.abcd If the argument address is omitted, the router will use the first IEEE-compliant (Token Ring, FDDI, or Ethernet) interface hardware address it finds. Your next step is to use the xns network interface subcommand to assign a decimal XNS network number to an interface and enables that interface to run XNS protocols. The full syntax of the command follows. xns network number no xns network The argument number is the network number, in decimal format. Interfaces not enabled to run XNS ignore any XNS packets that they receive. Every XNS interface in a system must have a unique XNS network number. Example: This example starts the routing process with no specific address specified, so the router will use the first IEEE-compliant interface hardware address it finds, then specifies network number 20. xns routing xns network 20 Configuring Static Routing To add a static route from your router to a remote destination in the XNS routing table, use the xns route global configuration command. The full syntax follows. xns route network host-address no xns route network host-address The argument network is the destination XNS network number in decimal. The argument host-address is a decimal XNS network number and a hexadecimal host number, separated by a dot. Example: The following example sets up a host (router) address of 51.0456.acd3.1243 as the static recipient of packets destined for network 25. xns network 51 xns route 25 51.0456.acd3.1243 1-4 ■ Router Products Configuration and Reference Managing Throughput You have several options for managing throughput while dynamically routing. You can set up multiple paths and send packets over these paths in a round-robin fashion. You can also enable or disable the route cache. You can even adjust how often your router uses RIP to send routing table updates to its neighbors provided all the neighbors are Cisco routers. Setting Multiple Paths XNS allows your router to select from multiple paths to a destination in order to increase throughput in the network. The default assumes that the router will pick one best path and send all traffic on this path. You can tell your router to compile two or more paths that have equal cost (hop count in XNS’ case) and balance the traffic load across all the available paths. To set the maximum number of multiple paths, use the xns maximum-paths global con- figuration command. The full syntax follows. xns maximum-paths paths no xns maximum-paths The argument paths is the number of paths to be assigned. The default value for paths is 1. Packets are distributed over the multiple paths in round-robin fashion on a packet-by-packet basis. To disable multiple paths, use the command with the default value of one. The no xns maximum-paths command restores the default. The EXEC command show xns route displays the entire routing table, so you can examine your additional routes and the maximum path cost for each. See the section “Monitoring an XNS Network” when you are ready to use this command. Example: The following example asks the router to send packets over two alternate paths, if available. xns maximum-paths 2 Enabling XNS Fast Switching XNS fast-switching achieves higher throughput by using a cache created by previous transit packets. Fast-switching also provides load sharing on a per-packet basis. As soon as you enable XNS routing, fast switching is automatically enabled as well. Use the xns route- cache interface command to enable or disable fast switching. The full syntax of the command follows. xns route-cache no xns route-cache Use the no xns route-cache command to disable fast switching and then the xns route- cache interface subcommand to re-enable fast switching.